146  Turpentine:  its  Nature  and  Adulterations.  {^"'mIVishs''''' 
TURPENTINE :  ITS  NATUEE  AND  ADULTERATIONS.^ 
By  Professor  Henry  E.  Armstrong,  Ph.D.,  F.R.S. 
In  the  course  of  investigations  on  the  terpenes,  camphor  and  allied  com- 
pounds, in  which  I  have  been  engaged  during  several  years  past,  the  oppor- 
tunity has  occurred  of  gradually  collecting  a  number  of  data  which  prob- 
ably are  of  sufficient  technical  value  to  find  a  place  in  the  "  Journal  of  the 
Society  of  Chemical  Industry." 
Thanks  to  the  kindness  of  my  friend,  Mr.  E.  Phillips,  of  Messrs.  Ingall, 
Pliillil^s  &  Co.,  I  was  enabled  to  examine  average  samples  of  most  of  the 
cargoes  of  turpentine  landed  by  his  firm  during  the  years  1877  to  1880,  and 
thus  to  obtain  a  clear  insight  into  the  character  of  the  commercial  article. 
The  high  price  of  turpentine  during  the  past  few  seasons  has  undoubtedly 
led  dealers  here  to  adulterate  it,  and  it  was  to  be  feared  that  shippers  might 
not  uniformly  resist  temptation  ;  therefore,  at  the  request  of  the  above-men- 
tioned firm,  since  the  beginning  of  last  year,  I  have  regularly  tested  all 
cargoes  landed  at  their  wharves. 
The  crude  resinous  exudation,  formerly  known  as  "  turj^entine  "  is  no 
longer  an  article  of  commerce  in  this  country,  the  obviously  rational  course 
being  nowadays  adopted  of  separating  it  into  its  constituents,  "  spirits  of 
turpentine,"  or  "turpentine  oil"  and  resin.  On  this  account  the  name 
"turpentine" — fw^^are  "  turps  " — is  now  commonly  employed  as  synony- 
mous with  the  longer  appellation,  spirits  or  oil  of  turpentine,  and  it  is  in 
this  sense  that  the  term  is  employed  in  the  paper. 
The  commercial  varieties  of  turpentine  mainly  consist  of  hydrocarbons 
of  the  formula  CjoHie,  of  which  certainly  three  distinct  classes  may  be  dis- 
tinguished, viz. :  terpenes,  citrenes,  and  a  third  of  which  si/lvestrene,  the 
characteristic  constituent  of  Russian  turpentine,  is  the  type.  Under  ter- 
pencSj  I  include  those  varieties  which  boil  at  about  156°  C.  ;  under  citrenes, 
those  which  boil  at  about  176°  to  178°,  such  as  are  the  <^hief  constituents  of 
the  oils  derived  from  various  species  of  citrus. 
French  Tur2ye7itine. — It  is  generally  stated  that  French  turpentine  is  the 
produce  of  a  single  species  of  conifer,  Pinus  maritima.  It  certainly  is  of 
remarkably  uniform  quality,  judging  from  the  almost  constant  rotatory 
power  of  samples  which  I  have  had  occasion  to  examine  at  various  times, 
and  probably  the  properties  of  the  terpene  of  which  the  French  oil  mainly 
consists  are  not  very  different  from  those  of  the  commercial  article.  Using 
any  form  of  polarimeter  which  admits  of  the  observation  being  made  in 
monochromatic  light — it  is,  perhai:»s,  well  to  note  that  the  Soleil  form  can- 
not be  employed  for  the  examination  of  turj)entine — and  operating  with  a 
200  mm.  column,  the  value  of     is  on  the  average  about  —  60°  to  — 61°. 
Arnerican  Turpentine. — American  turi^entine  is  said  by  Hanbury  and 
Fliickiger  ("  Pharmacograj^hia,"  1st  ed.)  to  be  chietiy  the  produce  of  the 
swamp  pine  {Pinus  australis),  this  and  the  loblolly  pine  (Pinus  tceda)  being, 
they  say,  the  most  important  sources  of  turpentine. 
The  following  jmrticulars  regarding  the  separation  of  the  hydrocarbon 
from  the  crude  resinous  exudation  will  probably  be  of  interest.  I  am 
indebted  for  them  to  Dr.  Thomas  F.  Wood,  of  Wilmington,  N.  C. ;  they 
1  From  tlie  "Journal  of  the  Society  of  Chemical  Industry,"  December  29,  1882. 
